Nepal Police counted 124 deaths and 2,988 injuries in 1,339 road accidents across Nepal during this year's Dashain festival travel period, according to figures given by the force's central spokesperson, Deputy Inspector General Abinarayan Kafle, and reported by Nepal Press on Monday, October 26.
Source: Nepal Wire (citing Nepal Press)
The toll covers the period from October 11 to October 25, the roughly two weeks when people travel home across the country for Dashain, Nepal's largest Hindu festival, the Nepal Police Headquarters figures carried by eNewsPolar said.
Source: eNewsPolar via Hamro Patro
Koshi Province recorded more crashes than last year
Provincial figures moved in the opposite direction to the national picture in the east. The Nepal Police Highway Safety and Traffic Management Office in Itahari said Koshi Province recorded 413 accidents and 22 deaths this Dashain, up from 291 accidents last year, though deaths fell from 26, OnlineKhabar reported. Morang district alone saw 170 accidents, the most of any district in the province, while Sunsari district recorded 87 accidents in which 10 people were killed and 156 injured.
Police in Koshi also booked 2,457 vehicles for breaking traffic rules across the province and collected NPR 2.529 million in fines - yaani about 25.3 lakh Nepali rupees - OnlineKhabar reported.
Sudurpaschim's Dashain-only count tops last year's longer window
In Sudurpaschim Province, the provincial traffic police office in Attariya told OnlineKhabar that 152 accidents from Ghatasthapana to Friday during this Dashain alone killed six people and injured 243. Last year, over the longer Dashain-to-Chhath period, police counted 122 vehicles in accidents, which killed 23 and injured 253 - meaning this year's shorter Dashain-only accident count already exceeded last year's longer-window total.
Nationally, the 1,339 crashes were fewer than the 1,492 recorded last Dashain, according to Khabarhub figures reported by Nepal Wire, but the provincial breakdowns show the fall was not shared everywhere, and OnlineKhabar reported that the data suggests controlling festival crashes is becoming more challenging.